SSWS meets with Northwestern Mutual Financial Network

The Smith School Women's Society held an informational meeting with The Washington Group of Northwestern Mutual Financial Network for those interested in internships and networking opportunities.

The meeting was one of many that SSWS has held during the past five years and one of several activities that the organization has held to foster both networking opportunities and bonding among members.

"We have a lot of companies come and do informationals like this, and the best thing about this is that our group is pretty small so when we have company executives come in, you get to meet them and get their business cards and talk to them," said SSWS Vice President of Administration and systems and operations management major Rasshmi Shankar.

"It's great for interviewing for the internships because it's great when you can know what they are talking about before you go to the interview and form great relationships," she said.

Northwestern Mutual piqued SSWS' interest because of its emphasis on leadership, especially among women.

"They have a women's initiatives program, so that is what they usually talk about, but they just created this development program, and it fit with us because we are interactive and we are all about leadership, especially with women," said SWSS Vice President of Events and junior finance and information systems major Emily Pearson.

Instead of listing different internship opportunities, director of recruitment Erin Richey engaged the group in a discussion about leadership. Richey said this helps students get ahead of the competition and learn about the qualities that companies look for in students besides GPAs and coursework.

"Leadership is an important quality for everyone who is in college right now, and I think that people are really interested in learning more about how they can be involved in leadership in their careers when they graduate," said Richey.

Richey agreed that a smaller setting is more effective when trying to recruit students as opposed to larger groups.

"I actually love these smaller settings because it engages people more and we are able to talk in a small group and make it more of a discussion than me just talking at somebody for 45 minutes,"

SWSS hopes that students not only learn from these events, but that the informational meetings also continue to allow the group to network with other companies.

"We have done a great job developing relationships with companies, and it also helps us get first preference when it comes to their events," said Shankar.